The 2016 edition of the Miami Open is about to begin. This is one of the prime events of the tennis season. Almost all of the big names will attend a tournament with a larger field than any other non-of the significant attractions on the tour, except for the Indian Wells tournament which just ended. There will be days off between early-round matches. The event takes a week and a half instead of a typical one-week period. This is also the last important hardcourt tournament before the clay season, whereas Indian Wells is something of a lead-in to this Miami event.
It will be interesting to see how Serena Williams responds after her second disappointing performance in a final this season (and after her back-and-forth with former Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore). Remember that she cruised through the Australian Open and was a huge favorite to beat Angelique Kerber in the final, yet she failed to do so. The same happened at Indian Wells where Williams looked like a shoe-in to beat Victoria Azarenka in the final, but she flopped again. Even Azarenka was so shocked that she beat her. Williams has won this even in each of the last three seasons but we’ll see if she can seal the deal once more at the Miami Open.
The competition in the 96-player main draw begins on Wednesday, March 23.
Event Details
Event: Miami Open (Key Biscayne)
Category: WTA Tour – Premier Mandatory
Date: March 23 – April 3, 2016
Location: Crandon Park Tennis Center – Key Biscayne, Florida
With a prize money allotment of just over $6.1 million, the 1,000-point tournament is a central focus of the young season on the WTA Tour. This is one of the two tournaments – Indian Wells being the other – which is next in line in terms of prestige and wealth after the four Grand Slam events. It’s widely regarded as a highlight of the season, and since it’s the last big hardcourt event before everyone moves to clay, any of the hardcourt specialists on tour know this is their last chance before summer to really make a statement and an upward move in the rankings. Clay players know their time is coming in April and May, but for hardcourters, this is the last tournament until late July in which they can really pounce. That’s part of what makes Miami so interesting.
The points structure under the WTA system is that the championship means 1,000 points. A runner-up finish is worth 650. A semifinal result is 390 points, and a quarterfinal appearance offers 215 points. A round-of-16 results provides 120 points, a round-of-32 showing 65 points. Winning this event will be important in terms of the standings as this offers much more than just the basic WTA 250 events.
Former Champions and Results (5 Years)
Year Champion Runner-up Score
2015 – Serena Williams def. Simona Halep – 6-2, 4-6, 7-5
2014 – Serena Williams def. Maria Sharapova – 6-4, 6-3
2013 – Serena Williams def. Maria Sharapova – 4-6, 6-3, 6-0
2012 – Agnieszka Radwanska def. Maria Sharapova – 7-5, 6-4
2011 – Victoria Azarenka def. Maria Sharapova – 6-1, 6-4
Player Info:
Indian Wells and Miami are the two tournaments on the WTA Tour with 96-player fields – not the 128 you see at a major, but also much greater than the 64-player fields you see at Premier Mandatory events. The big guns will be here – Serena and Venus Williams, Indian Wells champion Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep, Agnieszka Radwanska, Angelique Kerber, and more. The one glaring absence will be Maria Sharapova, a player who has done well here but is being provisionally suspended for taking the banned substance known as Meldonium earlier this year.
Crandon Park Tennis Center
The Crandon Park Tennis Center is celebrating its 30th year of hosting the Miami Open. The central stadium court is a court with sprawling decks – it’s not intimate so much as spread out and spacious. It’s a very open court, meaning that any matches played in the middle of the day will give neither fans nor players much relief from the sun. This is a tough weather tournament, perhaps the first one of the year after the Australian Open, which is played in the middle of the summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
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